"Dear Dutch" - Paul K (????)
Dear Dutch:
I'm watching your World Cup first round match versus Serbia & Montenegro on BBC 1 right now.
I've been looking at the Netherlands national team roster. I've seen the list from several different sources. I'm confused about the rules for the "vans" in some of your players' surnames.
In some Dutch team listings, all are shown as "...Van...". In some, they are all shown as "...van...". And on others -- including Google -- some "Vans" are capitalized and some aren't.
Two questions here....
1> What does "van" mean in Dutch surnames anyway?
2> Should the "v" be capitalized or not...or does it vary?
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Your faithful servant,
Lord Celery
posted by Janet @ 3:03 pm
3 Comments
3 Comments:
I'm surrounded by Dutch people, including one "van" that my mom married, and several of my closest friends who are also various forms of "van", so I'm just as confused as you.
And, incidently, my hubby and kids are watching the game right now too :-) And two of my friends were wearing orange soccer jerseys in church this morning.
Oh, I meant to add... I think "van" means "from".
Thanks, Heather, and I'm glad somebody else is confused as well.
"From". That makes sense. I figured "van" meant "son of" or "from"...something like that.
So "van" in Dutch is like "de" or "d'" in French, then.
I appreciate your comments!
[And I'm glad that at least one of the weekend's games was on at your home! ;) ]
Janet
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